kay's week - 2.11.17

Happy second Saturday of February!  Hope you are all staying warm and staying well!  Winter kind of seems to have skipped us here in Central Texas.  We had record highs this week - upper 80's.  February is a little early for that, in my opinion.  And half of the people I know are currently sick, have just been sick, or are feeling like they might be sick soon.  Flu has run rampant everywhere.  I volunteered at the library yesterday and they had more than one staff member out with illness.  Plus, every person that was looking for materials in the library seemed to be coughing or blowing their noses.  'Tis the season indeed.


I've been reading...

I finished three books this week and abandoned one completely.  More about that later.  Two were in print, one was on audio, and the DNF - also audio.

Brooklyn Bones by Triss Stein turned out to be an interesting read.  It's the first in the Erica Donato series that currently has three books - a 4th will come out in August of this year.  Erica, the protagonist, is the mother of a teenage girl, a native of Brooklyn, a widow, an urban historian working on her Ph.D., an intern at a museum, and a reluctant mystery solver.  In other words, she's busy.  While having her house renovated, a skeleton of a young woman is discovered behind the walls.  Erica's daughter, Chris, is helping the contractor with the renovation and is actually the one who makes the discovery.  Chaos ensues.  And bad people keep showing up to threaten Erica, who has no idea what is going on.  There was humor and some interesting New York lore.  I liked it a lot.  I'll be continuing with the next book in the series, Brooklyn Graves, soon.

Meanwhile, I listened to Sarah Pinborough's new thriller, Behind Her Eyes.  Bet you've heard something about this one, right?  It was narrated by several people, Anna Bintinck, Josie Dunn, Bea Holland, and Huw Parmenter.  I'm not going to say much about the storyline other than that it's gripping.  Truly gripping.  Told from several viewpoints, Louise, David, and Adele, the reader/listener thinks they have figured things out (or not) and then...no.  I have a feeling this is going to be a book that people either like/love or hate.  A lot has been mentioned about the ending.  Hmmm....I will say that I had my suspicions or something regarding it had crossed my mind, but I was surprised to be mostly correct.  I'll be curious to hear what others think.  Did I like it?  Well enough to think about reading other books by the author.  The audio was well done.  

My next book in print was Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.  This is my first book by this author and I had read several reviews about it from other bloggers in recent months.  The one that tipped me over the edge was Susan's (Bloggin' 'bout Books).  Susan and I have similar tastes in a lot of books and our reactions are often close to the same.  So, I dove in.  I guess this could be regarded as a thriller, but it seemed very much on the sci fi side to me.  Jason Dessen is a physics professor with a family that he loves, wife and teenage son.  He's abducted, asked if he's happy by a man in a mask, injected with something, and then he wakes up to find that he isn't married, his son doesn't exist, and he's a genius inventor.  What????  Well, there's a lot more that happens.  And I was just along for the ride.  Had no idea what would come next.  Will I read more books by Blake Crouch?  Um...yes!  Did anyone read this author's Wayward Pines trilogy or see the TV adaptation?  I have not, as yet.

Now to the book I abandoned.  And if you read or listen to this book, you might really like it.  I absolutely did not.  It's The Girl Before by J. P. Delaney.  I used an Audible credit for this one and got over halfway through it.  It was narrated by several (and well done): Emilia Fox, Finty Williams, and Lisa Aagaard Knudsen.  Again, I think it's going to be a book that is liked or loathed.  The story of an architect, a property, One Folgate Place, and two women who live in the house - one before and one after.  The owner has an extensive list of questions for any tenant and many, many, many rules.  Emma is the before tenant and Jane lives there after.  Emma is dead.  Jane is curious.  OK, there is a character that is hugely controlling and quite, quite odd.  I got to the point where I could not listen to any more about that character.  It also started verging into a 50 shades kind of thing.  You guys know that I can handle a lot, but sometimes, I just say 'NO'.  So, I stopped listening and actually returned it to Audible for a refund of my credit.  And I'm glad.  If you read this, I'll be curious as to what you think.  Ron Howard is going to make this into a movie.  Little Opie.  Ha!


Library Friends Meeting...

I attended my first 'Friends of the Library' meeting on Monday.  Filled out my paperwork, greeted several that attend the book group for that library and settled in to see what this 'Friends' group was about.  It was fun.  This group runs a 'twice-a-year' book sale that I've attended.  It a good one and they sell a lot of books.  I asked a few questions at the meeting and we'll see how they feel I can help out in the future.  They are just beginning to sell some collectible books online and I shared that I've a bit of experience with that.  I told them I also have accounting skills.  I look forward to becoming a part of the 'Friends' and raising funds for a local library.


Personally...

A nice week.  We're going to dinner tonight with our daughter and son-in-law.  We try to do that every few weeks to catch up with them and their lives.  They picked the restaurant this time and the daughter made the reservations.  Ajo is a 'New American' food restaurant with lots of healthy farm-to-table selections.  Maybe a little more brussels sprouts and kale than I would prefer (I know they are healthy, but I'm not a big fan!).  I'll find something good to eat though.  If I'm 'over the moon' about my dinner, I'll share about it next week.

It's squirrel and skunk season here in Central Texas.  Critters everywhere.  I snapped a shot of this little guy the other day, climbing on a tree by our garage.  I will not get this close to a skunk to take a picture.  They are around though - we can smell them.  Take care and have a good week!